The end of the year draws ever nearer, so once more I’ll be highlighting a particular game for the month of November. I also have a couple of honourable mentions as well. There’s been a fair amount of collecting things in the games I’ve been playing this time around.
First, honourable mentions.
Persona 5 Royal – Finally getting a Switch release, Persona 5 Royal has you becoming a Phantom Thief to steal the hearts of those with distorted desires and improve society.
Bayonetta 3 – Having taken on angels and demons before, this time around Bayonetta finds her enemies are homunculi: human creations. Her enemies are powerful, so a little multiversal co-operation is in order.
My main highlight takes us to the Spanish-inspired Paldea region.
Pokémon Scarlet (and Pokémon Violet as well, but I didn’t choose that version) takes us into the ninth generation of Pokémon games. Set in the region of Paldea, these particular titles give us an open world adventure. It’s pretty interesting to see where things have gone from Sword and Shield, to Legends: Arceus to these games.
Being a Pokémon game, many elements will feel very familiar; things like choosing a starter Pokémon, and going for eight Gym Badges. However, there’s no strict set order for you to tackle those challenges in. Besides Gyms, there are two other main challenges to pursue: the Path of Legends, and Operation Starfall.
The Path of Legends has you searching for legendary plants called Herba Mystica. The catch being that these are guarded by huge Pokémon known as Titans. But, hey, these Titan Pokémon will battle like any other wild Pokémon, so it’s pretty easy to figure out what you need to do.
Operation Starfall is where you’ll find the story revolving around the antagonistic team of this game, Team Star. Team Star have set up bases in various locations around Paldea, and it falls to you to invade and draw out each base’s boss by rapidly defeating lots of Pokémon. That’s where the auto-battle feature comes in.
With a tap of the R button, you will send out the Pokémon at the top of your party and it will battle wild Pokémon on its own, whilst you can focus on doing something else. The Team Star bases really put that to use, allowing you to use three Pokémon to autobattle. Defeat enough Pokémon, and you’ll challenge one of Team Star’s leaders. I just want to say that the Team Star Boss Battle Theme is phenomenal, by the way.
A new generation of Pokémon also brings along with it plenty of new Pokémon to catch. Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly are your three starters this time around. As is my personal tradition, I went with Water type starter Quaxly.
I’ve yet to see every last Pokémon, but there are some particularly good designs in there. Maybe not quite as many as in previous generations, but it is what is.
Performance issues aside, I’ve really enjoyed delving into the ninth generation of Pokémon so far, and will definitely be seeing it through to the end, and probably beyond.
Rory Muses 